Continuity mistake: When Steve, Romanoff and Agent Hill are watching Nick being operated on, Agent Hill is on the left, followed by Romanoff in the middle and Steve on the right. A couple of shots later, as Romanoff says "Don't do this to me Nick", it is now suddenly Agent Hill in the middle and Romanoff on the left, then a few shots later, it goes back to Romanoff being in the middle and Agent Hill being on the left. (00:36:25 - 00:37:00)
Continuity mistake: After Nick has escaped the "cops", he tells the car to give him the wheel. The shot then cuts to an overview shot where Nick is shown speeding through traffic. Just as the shot ends, he is shown about to drive past a bus, but by the next shot, the bus has vanished completely. (00:28:40)
Continuity mistake: After Alexander Pierce has finished having a conversation with the World Security Council, he goes over to Nick Fury and starts talking with him. When Pierce says "Nothing some earmarks can't fix", his head is shown to be perfectly forwards and still. Next shot, his head is suddenly shifted to the right a bit. (00:23:30)
Continuity mistake: After all of the SHIELD agents have landed on the boat, the various hostages are shown in the kitchen held at gun point by the terrorists. The first shot shows a male hostage tied up at the very back at the room with his head slightly shifted to the right. In a sudden close-up, just before the shot pans over to Agent Sitwell, that same male hostage at the back of the room no longer has his head shifted whatsoever. (00:07:05)
Continuity mistake: After Steve and Sam finish their jog, Sam is lying against a tree. When Sam says to Steve that he ran thirteen miles in 30 minutes, his hand is placed on his leg. In the next shot, his hand has suddenly moved way further up his leg. (00:01:25)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the "cops" are chasing Fury, they push a silver Lancer out of the way. They push it to be facing the wrong way in traffic. In the very next shot it changes back to facing the right way, but at a slight angle. (00:29:35)
Continuity mistake: After his last fight with Bucky Steve gets a few wounds on his face, which disappear when he comes out from the water.
Continuity mistake: When Sam asks "How do we tell the good guys from the bad guys?" and Steve replies "If they're shooting at you they're bad", Sam unleashes his Falcon wings. This shot shows Steve and Sam to be standing within a few feet of each other, but in the next shot where Sam flies off in his Falcon wings and Steve leaps off the roof, the two are suddenly several meters away from each other. (01:35:35)
Continuity mistake: After Steve explains to SHIELD that Hydra is working alongside them, one of the World Security Council members calls Alexander Pierce a smug son of a bitch. Three agents then walk into the room and one of them points a gun at one of the council members. The gun is first aimed at his head, then slightly lowered to his chest, then back to being raised and aimed at the head again. (01:37:15)
Continuity mistake: When Steve is explaining who Arnim Zola is to Romanoff, Zola says to them "Look around you. I have never been more alive." At the end of this line, Romanoff is shown turning her head to the right. In the next shot, she's suddenly looking back at Zola. (01:00:45)
Continuity mistake: In the elevator, when Agent Rumlow says "Sorry about what happened with Fury. It's messed up, what happened to him" and Steve replies "Thank you", Rumlow lowers his head. Next shot, his head is suddenly raised. (00:45:10)
Continuity mistake: When Steve is talking with Peggy, just as Peggy says "My only regret is that you didn't get to live yours", there are a few vertical line shaped creases on her pillow. The shot then cuts over to Steve, but when the shot cuts back to Peggy, the vertical crease furthest away from Peggy has decreased and the vertical crease in the middle of the creases has slightly increased. (00:19:40)
Continuity mistake: When Steve is fighting the terrorist who told him to remove his helmet, the fight begins out in the open. Steve is then shown in one shot kicking the terrorist enough times he falls back into a compartment with loads of weaponry. Then in an instant, they are suddenly back to fighting out in the open and most certainly not in the compartment. This has nothing to do with the angle of the camera. (00:11:45)
Continuity mistake: After Steve has taken out all the terrorists guarding the boat, the other SHIELD agents land on the boat in parachutes. As soon as Romanoff lands on the boat, she continues walking with Steve and begins conversation. From the reverse angle, Romanoff is visibly in front of Steve, but from the sudden following shot from the side, she is suddenly standing behind him. (00:06:55)
Continuity mistake: When Steve goes to pull open the cabinets to reveal the secret elevator, there are cobwebs covering part of the cabinet. Next shot, the cob webs have vanished. (00:58:15)
Continuity mistake: After Nick's car has crashed and The Winter Soldier begins to approach the car, one shot shows there to be a load of glass outside the car door. When the Winter Soldier approaches the car, the amount of glass has decreased. (00:31:25)
Continuity mistake: When the guy is standing on the roof of the car shooting at Captain America, the empty shell cases are landing on the roof at his feet, shown in a close up. When Captain America attacks him and flips him onto his back, the shell cases are gone. (01:16:25 - 01:17:00)
Continuity mistake: During the Nick Fury chase scene the amount of bullet holes and the damage change during the whole scene.
Continuity mistake: When Steve and Bucky are fighting, Bucky eventually lets go of the chip after Steve finishes choking him. The chip is first shown to be right next to the window frame, but when Steve goes to pick up the chip, it is suddenly several inches away from it. (01:47:20)
Continuity mistake: When the police ambush Fury, one of the police cars rams Fury's car from behind and its hood is wedged underneath Fury's rear bumper. But when Fury puts the car into drive to flee from the police, the police car has suddenly backed up a few feet. Fury's AI accelerates the car forward but doesn't move the police car that's blocking Fury in from in front either, and this can be seen because the battering ram is still next to the driver side window. (00:27:50 - 00:29:50)
Answer: Here's what he said in an interview: The thing with him is, you don't know if he's making up a story to get you to do a certain thing or if he's actually giving you a piece of himself. The great thing for me about that particular story is that is what my grandfather did when I was a kid. He actually ran an elevator in a hotel in Chattanooga, Tenn. That was his job. I used to go down there and sit in the elevator with him while he took people up and down. He got tipped that way and had money in his pocket or in a bag - and a little gun. He always had a pistol with him, some brass knuckles. I did not write that, it was just in there. It totally just happened that way. I chuckled about it. I was trying to figure out if I had talked about my grandfather in some interview somewhere years ago or something and somebody read it and put that in there. I never found out if that was the case. I think it's a true story for him.